Jabberjay Torment
by xfilesfanatic
Summary: This is a short story about the planning, execution, and experience of the Jabberjay torment in the Quarter Quell arena. Set during Catching Fire (will be at least three parts long).
1. A New Idea For the Arena

**Disclaimer:** The Hunger Games Trilogy is not mine, and neither are the characters.

**A/N:** This story takes place during _Catching Fire_, and is related to the Jabberjay threat in the arena. This first part is based off of a deleted scene from the Catching Fire movie, regarding an explanation of the mockingjay's existence, hence there is borrowed dialogue from that scene. (although it didn't make it in the movie, an explanation of their existence is in the 2nd Hunger Games book). This story is certainly not my best work, but I hope you enjoy!

Jabberjay Torment

President Snow reclined in a chair at the mahogany dining table in his comfortable mansion. With a tight-lipped and stern expression, he focused on the footage Plutarch Heavensbee was showing him. Footage... of Katniss Everdeen.

Katniss. That girl was a menace to society, and to think she managed to instigate so much trouble with nothing more than a few nightlock berries. The minute she and Peeta threatened suicide in the arena, forcing Seneca Crane to declare both of them victors of the 74th Hunger Games, was the minute she inspired rebellion in the districts. Never in the history of the Games had two victors emerged from the annual arena, and likewise, never in the history of Panem, since the destruction of District 13, had the district locals taken strong action against their Capitol. President Snow was starting to see it emerge more and more: people rioting in the filthy streets of the districts, rebels trying to destroy the train systems to prevent their goods from being shipped to the Capitol, and counterattacks against the peacekeepers. How unbelievable it was to think that one girl, sixteen at the time of her reaping, could bring an end to the utopia the Games tried so hard to enforce.

Snow sighed in frustration as he forced his attention to the film before him, vexed by the image of Katniss boldly blocking her friend Gale from Commander Thread's whip, willing to take a lashing in his place. Thread was the new head peacekeeper in District 12, and as far as Snow could tell he was doing his job right, taking _real_ action to destroy the black markets and punish the troublemakers. He was the perfect replacement for Commander Cray, who cut the district some slack with the black market and therefore did not fulfill his duties as Head Peacekeeper. Although Snow could only be left to guess of Gale's wrongdoing, he was sure it was deserving of a public flogging, a punishment so severe that no one in the square dared interfere, until Katniss took a brave stand. In that moment she had officially defied the Capitol twice. She was an agitator, she interfered with a peacekeeper, and aside from a lash to the face, got away with it unharmed.

This, however, was not what bothered Snow the most. It was the rest of the footage from Gale's flogging: Haymitch and Peeta eventually stepped in to try and help pacify the situation, despite the raging storm of anger etched into Thread's face. This was a problem, no doubt, for Katniss was no longer the only victor who could become a symbol of hope for the rebellion. Because of this simple act, all of the victors had now become threats to the peace.

After Snow had viewed the video in silence several times, the voice of Plutarch Heavensbee suddenly filled the silence of the president's dining room: "The broadcast cut out here," he indicated the image of Katniss shielding Gale's bare and scarred back from Thread's whip, "before any of the excitement happened."

Snow couldn't help but be grateful that the televisions in the districts didn't display anything further of this scene from District 12, but he was not at all relieved. "How many other people saw it?"

"Hard to say, there was a five second delay. But, it happened fast."

It may have happened fast, but people saw this, nonetheless. If Katniss could get away with interfering with a peacekeeper, what was to stop rebels from fighting against them in their own districts? It didn't matter that the district citizens were individually hungrier, weaker, and less equipped than the peacekeepers. What did matter, though, was that they had strength in numbers, and if they wanted to fight back, it would take a lot of effort, but in truth, they could take them down. Since the reformation of Panem, the Capitol had long tried to blind the districts to this fact, but now with this footage, Katniss was opening their eyes to the truth. To allow the cameras to record all of this live, to not shut them off before it was too late, was neglect on the part of the Capitol, and this reminded Snow of yet anotherform of carelessness. He sighed and turned his head to stare at two painted images of a black bird that rested on his table top.

"Those are drawings of the jabberjay," he began. "It was created as a weapon, an organic spy mutt. When the program was shut down, an extermination issue was ordered, but carelessly executed. The birds were released into the wild, in hopes that they would die. Instead they mated with mockingbirds, and now we have the mockingjay. A freak offspring of our..._neglect_, that is beyond our control." Snow grabbed his remote, focused his attention back to the television, and continued, "if you cannot contain Katniss Everdeen, then I will have to terminate her, and her species."

Plutarch nodded in understanding. After Katniss' little stunt with the berries, she returned from the arena and thrived off of the wealth and admiration she received from her victory, just as the jabberjays thrived enough to mate in the wild. But like the jabberjays, she should have been executed, by all rights, along with the other victors, whom Snow now referred to as her "species." As these thoughts streamed through his head, Plutarch smirked, knowing exactly what to say to the President next:

"There's a way we can still win. It's what we Game makers like to call a 'wrinkle'."

Snow's head snapped up in his direction. At this point, he was willing to listen to any suggestions that would offer a way to protect Panem as everybody knew it. So for Plutarch, he was all ears. "Go on, I'm listening."

"We are entering the 75th year of the Hunger Games, the third Quarter Quell. You and I know full well that every 25 years, the reapings are specially altered to keep the spice and intrigue of the Games alive. So, what would you say to an all-star version of the Games? This time, reap the tributes from the living victors. Show the people that not even the strongest among them can resist the Capitol's power. This way, you are guaranteed to reap Katniss Everdeen, and steal away their hope."

At these words, Snow couldn't help the smug smile that crossed his face. He was undoubtedly pleased with himself for having hired Plutarch Heavensbee as the new Head Game maker. Not even Seneca Crane was this brilliant when he was in charge. As if to propose a toast, he raised a glass of champagne in the air, "Here's to you, Plutarch. I daresay you are the most brilliant Game maker in the history of the Hunger Games." After taking a sip of champagne, he continued. "And speaking of the Games, how is the progress on this year's arena?"

"The plans for the arena are coming along beautifully. Already we have the layouts and design for the arena. As for the threats the tributes will be facing, plans for those are still underway. Although, I will say that I already have an idea for one of them." Plutarch smirked again, and turned his attention to the images of the jabberjays on Snow's table top.


	2. Scream Synthesis

**Disclaimer: **Characters aren't mine, except for Augustus Thread.

**A/N: **So just how did the jabberjays acquire Prim's and Annie's voices without either of them being tortured? Here's my explanation...

...

_AHHHHHH! Katniss, help me! HEEEEELP MEEEE!_

The screams of Primrose Everdeen pierced the air in the Simulations Lab at the Arena Headquarters, matching the mood and tone of the very room in which they were generated. The room itself was massive; so spacious in fact that a single individual could probably start feeling lonely if left alone in there for too long. The four sound-proof walls, forming a rectangular shape when adjoined with the ceiling and floor, bore a pallid white shade, yet appeared to have a slight gray hue in the presence of harsh fluorescent light. Since it was in the center of the Headquarters, natural sunlight never graced its walls. Altogether it made the lab seem cold, empty, and desperate, just like the screams.

_HEEEELP MEEE! HEEEELP MEEE!_

The sound-proof room had been fairly quiet prior to the screams, the only noises prior being those of Augustus Thread's footsteps throughout the lab and the pressing of digital buttons to activate simulations. Augustus smiled, enjoying the solitude in the room as he engrossed himself in contributing to the dangers of this year's arena. He hadn't always dreamed of working for the game makers; before acquiring this job, he was raised under the care of his uncle, Romulus Thread. Growing up, he always thought he would walk in his uncle's footsteps and become a peacekeeper himself, but that all changed when he realized that part of the job description meant living in an assigned district and taking charge to put a stop to any criminal activity. In time, the idea sounded unappealing, because it meant he would have to leave the comforts of the Capitol, his home, and take residence in the filth of a district. And when he really thought about it, vanquishing black markets and whipping criminals was really no more than a means to discipline people who couldn't take care of themselves. Eventually, he reached a point where he had rejected the idea altogether. When he turned twenty-one and declared he was old enough to live on his own, he decided he would serve the Capitol by helping prepare the arena for the Hunger Games. And now here he was, synthesizing shrill monologues to imprint onto the vocal chords of jabberjays.

Right now, he was so in tune with his work that the jiggling of the doorknob fell deaf on his ears. He only noticed the presence of others when he sensed a change in the air waves around him.

"Augustus?" Came a voice from behind. He turned around to see that Plutarch Heavensbee had entered the lab with President Snow at his side.

"Plutarch. Good to see you," he said while reaching out to shake Plutarch's hand and then respectfully nodding to the president to acknowledge his presence. "President Snow, an honor...So, what brings you here?"

"Well, I was briefing President Snow on the challenges the victors will be facing in the arena. I brought him here to so he could see for himself your efforts with the jabberjays."

Snow interjected, "I understand you intend to have the birds mock the sounds of the victors' loved ones, as if they were in agony. But just how do you plan to carry that out that if the Capitol can't touch these people without risking rebellion?"

"In seeking the answer to that question, President Snow, you've come to just the right place." Augustus wore a devious grin as he walked over to the icy knob of the door and closed it shut, then returned to where he was standing before Snow and Heavensbee. "It can take a little time to acquire someone's voice, but then once you have it, everything is downhill from there. Come with me." He motioned a hand to the center of the room, where a stationary panel of flat, holographic buttons sat, and as if he were working at the speed of light, he gently tapped a few and almost immediately on the farthest wall of the lab, television footage appeared, replaying the moment Katniss Everdeen volunteered at the reaping during last year's Hunger Games.

"When someone hears a loved one calling to them, begging for their help, that person is going to come running to the source of the screams. And sure, we could torture an individual to obtain those screams that we want the jabberjays to imitate. But why go to all that trouble when you can record their voices from old footage, and synthesize the rest?" Augustus played the footage from Katniss' first reaping and together the three men watched the scene from the year-old video:

_**Katniss: **(kneeling in front of Prim and grabbing her shoulders) Prim, you've gotta go. You've gotta get out of here. Find mom._

_**Prim:** NO!_

_**Katniss: **Find mom!_

_(Gale steps in and carries Prim away)_

_**Prim: **__No! Katniss! Katniss! _

_**Katniss:**__ Prim, I'm sorry!_

_(four Peacekeepers lead Katniss to join Effie on the stage)_

Augustus smiled and grabbed the remote to pause the video. "What you've just watched, gentlemen, is a portion of the reaping I have recorded. Now I'm going to isolate Primrose's cries:

_No! Katniss! Katniss!_

He paused the video a second time, and rewound once more. "And now I'm going to isolate further:"

_Katniss! _

"And that's that. Now I could go looking through tons more of footage from District 12, hoping to find Primrose screaming for help somewhere, and then feed a recording directly to a jabberjay, but thanks to the voice analyzer in the lab, I can synthesize it." He paused, sensing his little presentation may have overstayed its welcome, but when Snow gave him a gesture of the head, silently urging him to continue, he proceeded in his explanation. Quietly he walked over to a flat holographic computer and punched in a command to activate a spectrogram, which projected a black design of various wavelength patterns that appeared on the screen. "What you are looking at is biometrics technology. These wavelengths represent individual speech patterns; Primrose's, in this case, based on the recording I have of her voice. And once that's done, her speech patterns are used to estimate any spoken word or scream as if she uttered them herself. Allow me to demonstrate."

Augustus entered a command into the computer, requesting a shrill scream, and then typed in the words KATNISS, HELP ME over the transparent keyboard. He then verbally commanded the simulation to run, and the computer recited the command in a mechanical, monotonous voice. "Now see what happens when we incorporate Primrose's speech patterns."

He typed a final command into the computer, and instead of activating the RUN command, he requested the computer to "SPLICE & ACTIVATE". This time, the command repeated exactly as before, but no longer sounded like the drone of a robot. This time, the three men heard Prim screaming for her sister. It was complete: an artificial plea for help generated from the brilliance of modern technology.

Once Augustus had finished his demonstration, he turned back around to face the men who had come to observe his work, and saw pride etched into Plutarch's face. The president, however, was harder to read. He stood, his fingers stroking his white beard and one eyebrow raised. This made Augustus slightly nervous; he couldn't safely judge Snow's opinion by his actions or his current stance, but a flood of relief quickly overcame that when Snow finally spoke:

"So once you've synthesized the screams, you leave the rest to the jabberjays."

"Yes, sir. Leave the rest to the jabberjays. And Prim is only one example. I already have vocal recordings from loved ones whom other tributes hold most dear."

"Well, bravo." Snow lightly clapped his hands together twice. "I am impressed. I say once the jabberjays are ready, the two of you should join me for dinner to celebrate." After Plutarch and Augustus nodded in agreement, Snow concluded the meeting with a "very good, then," and gestured for Plutarch to follow him out the door.


End file.
